Not Looking Good For The Home Team

[bulldoggin']

It's a cryin shame every time I go by the MACK/volvo plant on one of my rock or sand runs I see one of the supposedly now top of the line trucks broke down no more than 2 miles from the plant! I personally wouldn't trade my 77 model for a 1000 brand new of those thing they roll,push,or tow out the door of that plant . Don't get me wrong i'm sure they are fit enough for the road, but not for my kind of work. the only reason I can say that is because I have seen a few of them fail at the gut wrenching work that we do and the places we go. Seems like they just keep on making them weaker and weaker as far as the frame is concerned. I have been waiting in line to dump sometimes and one of the new trucks be in front of me and, I watch him go down the soft new cut ground or a rough logging road and watch the cab go one way and the bed go the other way. You can also see the sagging frame when they lift their tag axles up. I have talked to the guys that drive the new granites they say they ride good but that's about it. They said they don't know how they make it in or out of some of the places we go without breaking in half. They also said that the trucks wouldn't make it 10 years without having major reinforcement of the frame and a few other things. I guess what I am trying to say is that you always don't get what you pay for. I would love to see MACK back like it was back in the good ol days, but as long as we got so called geniuses running around with a crayon in one hand and a piece of paper in the other telling everybody what's best, instead of going around asking the people out here that has been doing the work for years that know what they need and want. So all you BULLDOG lovers out there if you got an old dog you better hang on to her because it ain't looking good for the future! Just putting my 2 cents in don't mean to step on any toes of some of you guys that has the new trucks I still respect the new ones too. Just hate to see a good name be drug through the mud. (And end up with a broke frame)

[speedy]

The truck is a sgood as you spec them. Mack has something like 7 or 9 different frame specs to choose from. Needless to say, the one with the best looking price tag isn't going to be the stiffest or strongest.

Gone are the days of stopping by the dealership and picking out the one with the engine and transmission you like & going to work with it the next day. No sir, you gotta look at the purpose your using it for and spec it out from the ground up anymore.